[darpa_escapee]

> Either they were sold a dream by a company making bogus claims, or they just don't give a shit about false postives in the slightest and they use it as justification to randomly stop and search people.

You hit the nail on the head. Any system that hinders law enforcement’s assumptions and hunches will be touted as defective, anything that confirms those assumptions will be exalted.

This is why narcotics dogs are used. Studies show that dogs will signal upon trainer instruction, and that dogs aren’t accurate nor precise in practice. Such dogs exist to establish probable cause, not to determine whether or not a suspect possesses narcotics.

[liberte82]

It probably happens unconsciously a lot too, with no specific ill intent ... officer just has a "bad feeling" about a person and the dog detects the tension. Dogs are very sensitive to shifts in human emotion.